SUSPICIOUS MINDS
Elvis Presley

WARNING;
This Chapter will contain references to abuse, abuse of power/power imbalance, and suggestive violence. Some things may be confronting to read. Please read at your own risk.

FLASHBACK MARCH 21, 1986

There is so much more then that meets the eyes. The eyes of the beholder are the ones who have a good sense of what is going on in the world, some of which whom choose to turn cheek to the horrors that are being caused and inflicted upon others in hopes of keeping their sanity intact, and to any or all those who want to live in ignorance. They say there is a great sense of being ignorant to keep an inch of their own comfort from being corrupted. Something that people have the privilege to hold.

You think you know those who are walking the streets, or hell even your own life. And Melissa is one of the women to lead by example. She hasn't come close to being clean about her past life and what exactly lead her to leave Hawkins behind in her past. She figured it is time to take the first of many steps to tell her story. Some might say it is already an issue of personal concern and they are not wrong but not everyone knew the real reason. The truth about Melissa Byers. The girl who left.

Melissa called a family meeting at Jim's Cabin in the middle of Hawkins woodsy outskirts. Even in its debilitated, trashed, state everyone she knew in her life from past to present all sat around her. Every face focused on her ( Even including a new one, Antonov ) as Melissa had baby Josie, with an old tattered blanket Hopper dusted off to keep it clean for her new immune system, laid comfortably in her arms.

" Some of you are maybe wondering why I called you all here, to Hop's cabin, in the middle of the damn night. I'm sorry to have all you be dragged out here but if I don't come clean about this now I don't know what will happen."

Jim, ever the supportive fiancé he is to Milly, is a good foot away supporting Sarah on his arm as it was the only place safe enough to put her. He did not want to put her down on the potentially viral and infected exposed floor boards.

Joyce, both of her eyes half lifted up as she tried to maintain her drowsy self to stay awake worry coursing her system from being called back to the cabin in the middle of the night, had her arm on will's back to give him a sense of comfort. Jonathan faces her, which in turn Joyce had held his hand with her free one, the Byers brothers worried for their big sister.

Chris and Robert, whom were near the broken up cabins boarded up windows in the kitchen area of the home they were called to, stuck together as it is apparent to the married couple of how serious the topic must be for their old friend to call them. Though questions were raised none of the men in their right mind would question why Milly chose an early hour of the morning to hold a meeting.

Murray and Dmitri, both sat far in the backdrop of those who are considered family than friends to Melissa, were sat in silence quiet to observe an objectively different version of a intervention that is being carried out by the likes of one woman the two respected deeply.

Kathy, hand on the thigh of her lover, is on his right side to the two had stuck together since the return of Hopper and Melissa. Amanda, to her disgruntlement, had no choice in her spot in hoppers cabin and that is right next to the hot Russian bastard that betrayed his country to help her best friend. It didn't come without her grumbling how he better keep his hands to him-self or otherwise she would use her pepper spray. Antonov had only bemusement at how feisty she is which didn't come as shocking from the first of all and many stories Melissa told him about how bad ass of a woman Amanda Susanne Sinclair is. Truth be told it made him even more attracted to her.

Steve, Robin, and the boys of the party are all on the couch crowded right next to one another. El, face down low on her knees she propped up on an old rocking chair with no detectable emotion in her eyes while she remained unmoving as she kept her mind on Max unconscious in a hospital bed fighting for her life and in an induced coma, didn't meet the eyes of her parents. The hood of the blue sweater keeping her covered.

Mike sat in an open seat on Nancy's right hand side, there is an obvious concern for his girlfriend but he let El have her own privacy, Dustin and Lucas are first to notice how their sisters are with the weirdo and the commie bastard that turned out to be a decent guy. Dustin didn't understand what Kathy saw in Murray but she is a grown up, whose eyes might need to get checked.

Melissa's eyes take in the faces of her friends. Her family. All of them are here because of one common thing, one common Monster, that binds them. It being Vecna. Or Henry Creel. Her not so imaginary friend that has bought hell to her life. She nurses her fussing daughter with tender care. " There are things, from my life, many of you are not aware of and I don't think my own family has an idea of too. Starting with my... Well, my past."

Hopper, hoisting Sarah up on his chest using his arm to make her lean on one of his shoulders as he stepped up stand at Melissa's side, breathed in rushes of rough dry Hawkins air. " Are you sure this is the right choice, Mils? You know you.. don't have to tell them. There is no going back if you do." Milly knew it was in their right to know. She is the reason why Henry came back. He had came back to Kill her once and for all. " Mils?"

" It's okay, Hop." Melissa nodded assuredly to the choice. He leaned down, not caring for the dozen of eyes on him, kissing her on her lips tenderly as to say he is there for her. Robin nudged Steve, he is still dealing with the obvious rejection of being turned down by Milly two years back at the Byers old home, to which he acted dismissive to an otherwise amused robin. " You may all know I left town the day after I graduated high school. I was fresh out of spending countless of hours and days in school under the pressure of being label a problematic student. 'Cause of my daily freak outs I'd have almost every single time I was left to be alone in the nurses office. But.. there's more to the story than what might have been told outta the mouths of onlookers there."

Melissa closed her eyes. All the memories came in forces back from the repressed storage she had made up in her mind. Drawing back to how it all began as a child.

" I know Vecna. Or Henry." Her voice fell into a strong, deep, sense of earnest and unwilling truth. Dustin, Lucas, Will and Mike are the first release shocked gasps. " I have known of him since the first year I could form a thought. I first thought he was a figment of my imagination and I made him up as a mechanism to deal.. with my father's continuous abuse." Joyce flinched at the recount of her arguing with Lonnie, the prick hadn't been seen since Will came back in the fall of eighty three after being missing for a week too long, in her childhood. She had that prevalent old guilt resurgence which she initially believed she'd resolved. " I was on the swing, at recess, when he first came to me. He was... Charming. Calm."

Children echoed their careless laughter of easy to read carefree nature, with no worries of their home life being a burden to their otherwise new life they have lived for half a decade at age five, and no one paid mind to Melissa who did her up most best to keep her head focused on her lap as she swung her little legs on the groaning swing. Hawkins is in spring, the wilted leaves fell and the ground is canopied with the old dying trees fauna, which is Melissa's favourite season cause of the pretty flowers that bloomed every year in the season that brought the flowers back to life.

Melissa Byers didn't mind being alone.

Even in her five year old mind she understood being able to enjoy the loneliness is better than to have the feeling of thinking if she spoke to someone it will end badly for her.

Her daddy would tell her to go to time out for being too loud once the game is on, all she wanted was to cheer along with her daddy as his team won, and it scared her.

Why did her daddy yell at her for doing the same as he did? It confuses her.

" You know, little one, thinking isn't the best for you to be doing. For such a small girl like you."

A voice, that made Melissa jump at, came from right beside her on the spare lonely creaking seat on the rusted metal swing.

" I am sorry for frightening you, I didn't have the intention to do so." Melissa stared, her oval broad eyes widen in comparison to her own tinier face, at how much she is surprised to find a tall stranger next to her and she began to wonder if he's imaginary as no other child on the playground seem to see him. " You seem troubled, sweet girl, what is wrong? I might be a stranger but maybe I can be of, let's say, help. If you need me to be."

" My Mommy said not to talk to strangers." Said Melissa, remember her mommy's first rule she is quick to remind her daughter of, then turns back to the strange man. He chuckled. " You.. can't be here. You will get in big trouble if they catch you and you will put in jail like my daddy has been." Melissa's face began to turn red, embarrassment at her blabber mouth, and she muttered " Oh no. I am in big trouble for saying that secret. I'm S.. Sorry. Please don't tell on me, Mister. Sorry."

" Don't fret, sweet girl, I won't tell your secret." The mystery stranger said, hands in his lap on the swing rocking the pleather rubber seat front to back, his intense dead eyes bore into Melissa's troubled gaze. Such pain in the eyes of a young girl shouldn't exist. " I tell you what. Let's begin with telling each other our names, that way we aren't strangers no more. I will tell you mine, you tell me yours. Is that Okay with you?" He knew her name. Melissa Byers. But he needed to let her say her name before he could do what he came back to do. " My name is Henry Creel."

Melissa smiled, open to talking with someone even if she still found it strange.

" My name is Milly. My mommy said she used a short name because it sounded a lot easier to say than my real name Melissa. My daddy calls me the b word, sometimes, when he is angry at me. It's a naughty word mommy says I can't repeat it." She recounted her daddy's use of the word she can't repeat. It's the word 'Bitch' which she didn't understand. " Don't tell mommy I said the word but daddy... always calls me bitch. Do you know what that is, Henry? Because I don't know what it is."

Henry's daze became darkened. Oh, how he wish to be the drunken fools demise. He's seen how he treats Milly and the infliction of pain Lonnie had put upon her frail, growing, body.

" I understand." He answered, Coldly. " Your mother's right, sweet girl. That isn't a word you should repeat. It is a bad word very bad, mean, people use that young ears shouldn't listen to. Young one." With a hand out to Milly, counting on the children of the playground to continue their woeful playing time of recess ignoring Melissa, Henry hummed. " Come with me. Let's go for a little walk inside of the pretty woods. Don't worry you'll be back in time for the bell." He played the best card he could, the pretend reassurance everything will be okay for her, and he smiled feeling her take it.

Henry helped Melissa on an old log, that a tree once stood tall over the centuries of its existence, while still having a tight grip on her hand. " Tell me, Melissa. Do you know the word power?" He asked pretending to be interested in the piece of stick Melissa gave him. " And what a power is?" He snuck in a gaze at her innocent face that is a reflection of her confusion on the word power. " It's quite alright if you don't know what I am saying, Sweet girl. I won't be upset if you don't."

" N..No, I'm sorry. I don't know what power is." Answered Milly, sad she couldn't understand the question. " What does power mean, Henry?" She heard the pretty sounds of the birds on the trees and found curiosity in the ravens nest in the tree above her. Henry lifted Melissa upright, on part of his chest his button up started, and he blinked. He could sense the power coursing in her veins. " Look at the raven! Mommy says raven can be a good friend to make because they can protect you from bad people." He faked being intrigued.

" That is an interesting, fun, fact."

He cleared out his throat. " Now, Milly. Power is, like, the sun." He tried to find the right words he needed to use. " The sun creates power and it can create these rays." He showed Melissa, how a ray of sunlight would be a good example of the power he is wanting to capture, by standing in a slight position of the direct ray that forced itself into the dreary mist. He watches Milly thread a hand of hers in the air. " I also have powers. But unlike the sun i can make things out of my mind. Move things as well."

He focused on a rabbit, in the distance, that is grazing on a leaf deceiving a little plan. His gaze intensified, vibrations slow to emit off him, and the leaves began to circle it. It squeaked out of terror it galloped in the air as Henry continued to make it levitate before he'd made the choice to bring the rabbit forward. For Milly to hold. She gasped, wonder in her eyes, while the wild white rabbit tried everything in its power to escape its captor. Henry gave her the rabbit with a pleased stare. " You also have powers. Melissa. But they are very different to mine." That made her look at Henry like he had told her a funny joke and it caused her to giggle. " What is amusing to you, sweet girl?" He chuckled at her little laughter.

" I don't have powers! You are funny, Henry."

' It seems she isn't aware of her own existing life of greatness, Hmm. I find myself wonder to why that is. Might have to take a little more time than I originally intended for this to work. To teach her how she could use and channel those powers of hers.'

" Through those years Henry was around me he'd always show up, without fault, at recess. We'd go out to the woods, right at the back of Hawkins middle school, and some days he would show off his telekinetic abilities. First it was with the little white rabbit. Second an innocent deer that was in the middle of a clearing... then it.. got darker.. he became violent. Scarier than my dad could ever be.."

Melissa, now sixteen years old, found the usual spot in the woods behind her house she met Henry after every school day of dealing with the troubles of the passive aggressive unsubtle kind of bullying she got from her peers in class. She's been working hard to not let it define her views of her own experience at school. She loved it, as school had became the sanctuary she needed to thrive in with the troubles at home causing such the loss of warmth at times.

Melissa grinned, her voice carried while Henry had his usual attire of a straight white dress shirt on, and pale Khaki pants he wore for job at the Hawkins lab he had.

" Henry! Hey! There you are. You don't know the day I had today. Mr. Clarke made us all do a big, like, pop quiz on molecules in science and I got a five out of ten for my score!"

Melissa confesses, admitting to her boredom on the entire formate of the surprise quiz she didn't learn anything on, and she had her hand in his. " Enough about the stupid quiz!" She exclaimed. " I'm ready for our game! Catch me if you can."

Melissa made a beeline for the trees, letting go of Henry's hand, unbeknownst to milly Henry was watching her with a creepy glare on his face and his forehead muscles began to twitch as he starts his hunt for Melissa.

Henry, from the moment he heard of Melissa starting high school, monitored her every move in the same building he to had an experience of generational trauma. Such the likes of his father. The trauma of being bullied. It happened to his Melissa. His possession. The girl he claimed. How dare those imbeciles think they are in the right to deflect their troubles onto to her? They had what coming to them. Their screams a good treat for Henry to enjoy as he took their lives. As the life slowly grew less and dimer in their eyes.

Melissa stopped running, the usual mist that she came to find comfort in rolling among the forest ground to her feet, and Henry came straight up to Melissa inches from her back. She jumped up in the air, once sensing him, laughing it off. " Oh! You found me. Like you always do, Henry." She giggled, sillily pulling his arm to drag him back. " Let's do it again! This time it's your turn.. what are you doing.. Hen.." Henry reigned her into a cornered intervention, of his own arms, making her lean on the tree pinning her to the tree itself. Milly didn't under why he appeared infuriated at her for. What did she do? " Aren't we going to play the game? Why do you look angry at me? Did I do something wrong?"

Henry dusted the hair off Milly's forehead. A subtle move that spoke a thousand unsaid things he didn't verbalise. " You know you can tell me if you have troubles, from any of the male students, at your school." Finger on her cheek, his voice a rasp, and his voice is an echo of a throaty growl. " Because you can trust me. Can you not, Melissa?" She nodded her head with a quick responsive 'Yes, Henry. I do' and it didn't convince him. She gulped while Henry got her by her throat, not enough to choke her but it takes her off guard. He's never the one to get this type of psychical.

" You're my Melissa. Are you not? And my Melissa tells me the truth. She does not lie to me." He responded, while gripping her face, Milly began to widen her eyes. " Mine. You are mine. You understand. Tell me you do, Sweet girl."

" Yes.. I do, yes I do understand. Hen.. Henry."

Joyce felt a fresh wave of nausea, anger, and pain hearing the great suffering that Melissa endured at the hands of her imaginary friend. Now it all made sense. The day she ran back into the house. Her terrified, hysterical, screams and sobbing she wailed. It all lead back to Henry. Who she told of in her youth. Joyce remembers her confusion on who this Henry was her girl made up one evening after she came back home, from her days and the years of elementary school, but it's all a clear big picture. The truth she couldn't believe she didn't understand before. The guilt she felt lying really heavy on her heart. Her poor, sweet, girl.

Will and Jonathan couldn't believe their ears. To think she was dealing with Vecna before their own knowledge of him. Before he chose to get his hold on Will. Melissa was fighting him all along. All by herself. Jonathan balled his fist. He went after his nieces, Sarah and Josie. Targeting them to get to Melissa. Nancy noticed, while turning to her boyfriend, his tightened fist of displeasure at the news. Her own stomach churned, she made sure he didn't break out in a moment of anger, as her eyes found Jonathan's. She is left speechless.

Chris put a hand on his chest to rest his erratic, beating, heart as an unsettled sinking dread sets in. Robert ran a hand down Chris's arm, he too is disturbed.

Mike made a disgusted noise. 'This Vecna creep... preyed on her. What an asshole. That is so sick. I am going to hurl.' He could not begin to wrap his head around Milly's story. He grimaced, the way he imagined the story is a lot darker than he had like it to be, and Dustin's mouth began to taste a lot like cotton. Drying up. He looked queasy and as if he's going to throw up. Kathy wanted to cry, Even if she has heard this story beforehand, for her best friend. Amanda, unintentionally, grabs Antonov's arm to keep her from losing her cool. He allowed it as he still had some processing to do himself. All of his previous problems working for the Soviet are no match for the supernatural problems that have entered his troubled life.

Eleven let a tear shed. Her mom went through too much, in her life, but still she chose to be the woman she is. Never letting it change her way of living. Her kindness. " You are strong. Mom." It was four simple words for Eleven. To Melissa it's a sign of courage, grace, and truth. She is strong. The trauma made her stronger but at what cost? Her life. The countless of nightmares. Grieving a better life free of constant ridicule, gaslighting of medical professionals at the hospital, and many therapy programs that labeled her the insane girl.

" Eleven is right, Mil.. Milly. Screw that Creep, for the bullshit he put you through." Mike stuttered. " You came out of that fighting and swinging with those awesome powers you have. You are, like, so much more cooler than he can ever be."

He says, standing up, and Milly had to Crain her head to actually get a good look at him. His growth spurt made him close to six feet tall. Josie fussed in her mom's hold.

" El was telling me, back in Cali, as we were at the roller rink with Will.. that.. you.. that you came back to Hawkins despite being like afraid to do so. Which takes balls, Milly! You did it. You conquered those fears like the dungeons and, you know, dragons campaigns we play. You guys. Am i right?"

Hopper smirks at the comparison.

He didn't have the slightest of interest, or clue, to care or to get an understanding of the kids analogy of what he meant but he understood the word bad ass and cool. That he did see in his fiancé. Hopper leaned on his side, placing his entire weight on his right foot grounding himself, placing a chaste peck on the corner of her eyebrow. " The kid is right, Mils. You are a survivor, a bad ass, and the coolest woman I know." He mumbled, as Milly let her eyes closed. " And the love of my damned life. You make it so much easier to live it, baby."

Melissa hesitated as her mind went to her father. Her real father, Abraham. She wanted to bring it to her mother's attention. Even remembering the letter her dad wrote before his death. She didn't have it in her to mention it. Not yet. It didn't feel like it was a good enough thing to mention, now. Not even when Josie and Sarah needed to sleep. Robin raised her hand, waving it erratically, like she's in school and class is in session. Milly grinned wide.

" Question. Question! Uh, not to totally sound like I wasn't listening, 'cause I so was and this's an example of my short attention span when it does come down to other people's lives, how old were you again when you met Henry.. or one, of you.. know Subject zero, zero, one whatever his name is."

" I was five." Milly answered, crinkling her nose. " Which sounds even worse to say, again, right out loud. Really bad." Robin goes 'Oh' with her face twisting in disgust at how a full grown man talking to a child. At her school. How sickening.

Lucas spoke up, repulsed is his face and voice as it showed with how exclaimed using his hands to gesture. " What kind of freak decides it's okay to talk to a kid on a school playground like that? He is downright obsessed. And not to mention super stalker-ish. Yuck!"

Dustin nodded, furiously with his own curly set of hair bouncing off his face at the sudden buoyant pace of his head shake, and it definitely further his upset thoughts thinking back to how Eddie died fighting the DemoBats. It's all Vecna. It's all his doing. His fault. He hurt Melissa badly. He deserved to feel the exact same hurt as he did to her.

" I agree with Lucas, Melissa. I'll be right here, at your side, the day we finally take down Vecna. You have always been part of our party. So you won't be in this fight, with him, alone."

Will shared the same values and approved of his best friend's message. His sister isn't alone with this fight. Her fight is his fight, also. And he knew Jonathan would say the exact same.

No matter their ups and the downs they had, in the years they grew up out of infancy and into the life of adolescence, in the end Melissa is will's big sister.

His sister he loves with his entire heart.

JASMINE SPEAKS;

So technically this is just a flashback, instead of it being an actual chapter for the fifth season cause i am being safe here and not going to assume that i will probably be able to write what i wanted into the story at first. If that is making any coherency in any sense.

Or simply this is me just writing an entire chapter based on Milly's past that will be a fugal tale about her past with Henry which will in turn connect season five to her and him. I had an idea to write this as basically an insight and Filer.

What did you think of her story background? Her and Henry? I'll divulge more into that part, more about them I mean, when the new season starts.